Digital Media Receiver Monitoring System

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a method for monitoring a digital media receiver (including receivers for television or other type of digital media) to determine whether it is necessary for a receiver to re-connect in order to continue receiving a predetermined channel or stream. This invention is useful in digital media monitoring systems and in situations with many receivers connected to the same signal source and predetermined channels defined to be output by each receiver. One embodiment of the invention uses an auditing receiver that constantly scans the upstream channel-map, guide data, service information or system information to determine if the connection parameters required for receiving each predetermined stream have changed. Some examples of connection parameters include packet identifiers (PIDs), radio frequency (RF) channel and uniform resource locator (URL), depending on the type of broadcast and stream. When the auditing receiver gathers the latest connection parameters, a monitoring system compares the recently checked connection parameters to the connection parameters currently in use on each other receiver to determine if each receiver needs to be re-connected to continue receiving the predetermined stream defined for that receiver.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of provisional patent applicationSer. No. 62/069,412, filed Oct. 28, 2014 by the present inventor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the field of digital media content monitoring.More specifically, the invention comprises a way to detect connectionparameter changes in a broadcast and uses this information to correctdigital media receivers when a predetermined channel or stream has alineup change.

2. Description of the Related Art

There are many ways in which the contents of digital media streams aremonitored. For the purposes of this invention, content monitoring refersto the contents of a digital media stream which include one or more ofthe following: audio, video, digital metadata, and subtitle/closedcaption. Frequently content monitoring is done on televisionprogramming. Some of the reasons this content is monitored include:

-   -   Automatic Content Recognition (ACR)—This technology is commonly        subcategorized as “watermarking” or “fingerprinting” technology.        Watermarking techniques change the audio or video in a stream        before it is broadcasted by putting a unique, hidden “watermark”        on it which can be recognized by computers later. Fingerprinting        techniques process audio or video to generate unique reference        “fingerprints” without changing the data. Each fingerprint is        based on the unique audio, video, subtitles, caption or metadata        in the stream so that other copies of this data can be        recognized by software referencing these fingerprints later. ACR        technology is used for:        -   Rights management (confirming that a TV station is paying            the royalties for the content it displays, etc.).        -   Software Applications on Smart TVs, tablets, smartphones and            other devices—these applications can detect what content is            playing and allow an interactive experience. For example:            users can vote or play trivia games that are related and            synced to the content as it is broadcast.        -   TV Ratings—watermarks on audio or video are read to confirm            that a program that aired is the same as the scheduled            program. Also, some programs have “fingerprints” taken to            offer an alternate system to reading watermarks.        -   Advertisement verification—Counting the number of            occurrences with time stamps when an advertisement is            played. This allows a TV or radio station to prove that            advertisements were aired. It also allows advertisers to            audit TV or radio stations and verify that purchased            advertisements ran.    -   Broadcast Monitoring—This technology usually consists of        recording content, usually for public relations purposes. For        example, if a touring politician wants to know what the local        news said about him, he may query a broadcast monitoring        database to find transcripts and audio/video clips. Similarly,        an organization's public relations department may want to know        what news stories have been reported about them recently and do        a similar search.

These and other applications have created a demand for contentmonitoring systems. Content monitoring, especially in cable TV, comeswith many challenges. Most cable providers prefer that provider ownedreceivers are rented as opposed to allowing users to provide user ownedhardware. It is well known in this industry that most cable TV receiversare highly unreliable when running constantly. This causes highmaintenance costs and excessive down time. Cable TV providers commonlycause problems with cable TV receivers by changing the channel lineup.When this occurs the receiver needs to be manually re-tuned to locatethe updated broadcast. Because of these reliability problems with cableTV receivers, there is demand for a reliable system that can hand offcable TV data to monitoring servers. Note that currently satellite andover-the-air, signals and receivers are usually more reliable than cablesignals and receivers and are more popular when they can be used. Cableproviders are required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) toallow end users to rent cablecards and insert them into end user ownedreceivers that support cablecard. This allows cable TV users to maketheir own receivers work with the cable TV provider's system. Somecablecard devices allow for remote management by users which allowsmonitoring and remote management of these receivers when they are usedfor content monitoring.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

One embodiment of the invention comprises a system for monitoring andautomatically correcting cable TV receivers that are meant to play aspecific channel continuously for long periods of time. Furthermore, thesystem is meant to detect cable TV provider lineup changes and correctcable TV monitoring receivers automatically. This embodiment works whenthe cable TV receivers have a means for external communication (usuallythis comprises a connection to the internet through a separate networkinterface on the receiver).

In a typical cable TV content monitoring configuration, there areseveral receivers, each set to a channel that is being monitored. Also,there is one or more servers ingesting the output from the receivers.These receivers will be referred to as the “active receivers” in thisdocument. For the purpose of the receiver monitoring system, there isone extra receiver that is not used for content monitoring which will bereferred to as the “auditing receiver” in this document. The auditingreceiver runs on a schedule and connects to each channel that an activereceiver is set to, in sequence. The auditing receiver connects to theprovider's connection parameter data source which is a virtual channelmap obtained from the service information which is passed from acablecard. The auditing receiver uses this data to determine the radiofrequency (RF) channel and packet identifiers (PIDs) of each streamassociated with the requested channel. Each time the auditing receiveris set to an active receiver's channel, it stores the connectionparameters (RF channel and PIDs for each of the streams it is passingthrough out of the transport stream multiplex). The monitoring systemthen reads the connection parameters from the auditing receiver andstores them in a database. The monitoring system then connects to eachactive receiver and verifies that the connection parameters currentlyselected are the same as the connection parameters that the auditingreceiver most recently found by connecting to the channel based on thelatest information from the virtual channel map. If the connectionparameters do not match, the monitoring system sends a command to theactive receiver to re-connect based on the latest connection parametersfrom the virtual channel map. Although this embodiment is described in acable TV monitoring configuration, the same method can be applied toreceiving digital media streams from other sources that have upstreamservice information, system information, channel map or guideinformation available. In non-cable connections, the parameters providedby the connection parameter data source may be different but the logicfor determining if a re-connection is needed would be the same: ifcritical parameters change, then re-connecting is required.

In a second embodiment, the monitoring software is housed on the activereceivers. The active receivers receive signal from a cable TV serviceor other upstream digital media sources. Instead of the externalmonitoring system determining when to re-connect or re-tune, software oneach active receiver checks the service information (or other form ofchannel map, guide or system information) to determine if lineup changeshave occurred and re-connect with new parameters if necessary.

In a third embodiment, the monitoring software is again housed on themonitoring server and the auditing receiver is unnecessary because themonitoring server takes over the auditing function by connectingdirectly to the digital media stream provider's connection parameterdata source to collect the latest connection parameters. The monitoringserver again connects to the active receivers to determine if lineupchanges have occurred and command active receiver to re-connect ifnecessary.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the overall operation of the first mentionedembodiment of the digital media receiver monitoring system.

FIG. 2 illustrates the overall operation of the second mentionedembodiment of the digital media receiver monitoring system.

FIG. 3 illustrates the overall operation of the third mentionedembodiment of the digital media receiver monitoring system.

REFERENCE NUMERALS IN THE DRAWINGS 10 Server for Receiver Monitoring 12Monitoring Software 20 Active Receiver 22 Configured Stream 30 DigitalMedia Source 32 Connection Parameter Data Source 40 Content MonitoringServer 50 Data Connection 60 Digital Media Input 70 Output Medium 80Auditing Receiver

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIGS. 1,2,3

FIG. 1 shows the overall function of one embodiment of the digital mediareceiver monitoring system. Digital media source 30 connects throughdigital media input 60 to active receivers 20 and auditing receiver 80.Digital media source 30 sends connection parameters from connectionparameter data source 32 along with digital media streams. Activereceivers 20 receive digital media streams and connect to the configuredstream 22 using data from connection parameter data source 32 thenoutput content on output medium 70 to content monitoring server 40.Monitoring software 12 runs on server for receiver monitoring 10 andconnects to auditing receiver 80 through data connection 50. Auditingreceiver checks current connection parameters from connection parameterdata source 32 for each configured stream 22 configured on an activereceiver 20 and reports connection parameters to monitoring software 12.Monitoring software 12 then checks active receivers 20 in sequence toconfirm that the connection parameters currently in use are the same asthe latest connection parameters gathered from auditing receiver 80. Ifparameters do not match, monitoring software 12 commands active receiver20 to re-connect.

FIG. 2 shows the overall function of a second embodiment of theinvention. Digital media source 30 sends digital media streams to activereceivers 20 through digital media input 60. Monitoring software 12 onactive receivers 20 uses data connection 50 to check upstream guide,channel map, system information or service information. Monitoringsoftware 12 uses updated connection parameters to determine if activereceiver 20 needs to re-connect to continue receiving the configuredstream 22. Active receivers 20 output content through output medium 70to content monitoring server 40.

FIG. 3 shows the overall function of a third embodiment of theinvention. This embodiment is the same as the embodiment described inFIG. 1 except that auditing receiver 80 has been eliminated and serverfor receiver monitoring 10 connects directly to connection parameterdata source 32 and checks the current connection parameters for eachconfigured stream 22 on each active receiver 20.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described inspecific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled inthe art that various changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method for monitoring one or more active receivers, the methodcomprising: providing one or more active receivers with connectionparameters each for receiving a digital media input and providing apredetermined configured stream; providing a monitoring server forcommunicating with the one or more active receivers; providing anauditing receiver for querying from a connection parameter data source acurrent required connection parameters for each of the one or moreactive receivers; wherein the monitoring server repeatedly communicateswith the auditing receiver to query the current required connectionparameters for each of the one or more active receivers and compares thecurrent required connection parameters to the connection parameters foreach of a corresponding one or more active receivers for determining ifre-connection of any of the one or more active receivers is necessary tocontinue providing the configured stream, wherein connection parametersand current required connection parameters include information requiredto select a predetermined configured stream from the digital mediainput; and sending a command to re-connect from the monitoring server tothe corresponding one of the one or more active receivers if the currentrequired connection parameters do not match the connection parameters.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital media input is from acable TV service.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital mediainput is from an over-the-air broadcast service.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein the digital media input is from an internet streamingservice.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital media input isfrom an IPTV service.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the digitalmedia input is from a satellite TV service.
 7. A method for monitoringone or more active receivers, the method comprising: providing one ormore active receivers each with connection parameters and each forreceiving a digital media stream and providing a predeterminedconfigured stream; providing a configured stream predetermined for eachof said one or more active receivers; wherein each of the one or moreactive receivers repeatedly checks a connection parameter data sourcefor a current required connection parameters and compares the connectionparameters with the current required connection parameters to determineif re-connecting is necessary to continue providing the configuredstream, wherein connection parameters and current required connectionparameters include information required to select a predeterminedconfigured stream from the digital media input; and re-connecting theone or more active receivers if the current required connectionparameters do not match the connection parameters.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein the digital media input is from a cable TV service. 9.The method of claim 7, wherein the digital media input is from anover-the-air broadcast service.
 10. The method of claim 7, wherein thedigital media input is from an internet streaming service.
 11. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the digital media input is from an IPTVservice.
 12. The method of claim 7, wherein the digital media input isfrom a satellite TV service.
 13. A method for monitoring one or moreactive receivers, the method comprising: providing one or more activereceivers each with connection parameters and each for receiving adigital media stream and providing a predetermined configured stream;providing a monitoring server for communicating with the one or moreactive receivers; providing from a connection parameter data source acurrent required connection parameters to the one or more activereceivers and to the monitoring server; and wherein said monitoringserver repeatedly queries the connection parameter data source for thecurrent required connection parameters and compares the connectionparameters to the current required connection parameters for each of theone or more active receivers for determining if re-connecting isnecessary to continue providing the configured stream, whereinconnection parameters and current required connection parameters includeinformation necessary to select the predetermined configured stream fromthe digital media input; and sending a command to re-connect from themonitoring server to a corresponding one of the one or more activereceivers if the current required connection parameters do not match theconnection parameters.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein digital mediainput is from a cable TV service.
 15. The method of claim 13, whereinthe digital media input is from an over-the-air broadcast service. 16.The method of claim 13, wherein the digital media input is from aninternet streaming service.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein thedigital media input is from an IPTV service.
 18. The method of claim 13,wherein the digital media input is from a satellite TV service.
 19. Themethod of claim 1, and further comprising receiving from the connectionparameter data source the current required connection parameters at theone or more active receivers and re-connecting to reestablish theconfigured stream in response to a command signal from the monitoringserver.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection parameters andcurrent required connection parameters include radio frequency channelor packet identifiers.
 21. A media monitoring system comprising: atleast one active receiver with connection parameters for receiving adigital media stream from a digital media source and providing aconfigured stream; an auditing receiver for querying a connectionparameter data source for a current required connection parameters forthe at least one active receiver; and a monitoring server for queryingthe current required connection parameters for the at least one activereceiver and comparing the current required connection parameters withthe connection parameters to determine if a change has been made and inresponse to a change sending a command to the at least one activereceiver to re-connect.
 22. The media monitoring system of claim 21,wherein the monitoring server is housed with the at least one activereceiver.
 23. The media monitoring system of claim 21, wherein theauditing receiver is housed with the monitoring server.
 24. The mediamonitoring system of claim 21, wherein connection parameters and currentrequired connection parameters include radio frequency channel or packetidentifiers.